Temple Mount Activists Sacrifice Lamb In First Passover Reenactment

Image by getty images

By Daniel J. Solomon April 7, 2017

Before the destruction of the Second Temple, the priests of old would sacrifice a lamb on the occasion of Passover. More than two millennia later, Israeli activists seeking access to the present-day Temple Mount – where some hope to erect a Third Temple – are re-enacting the ritual for the first time by slaughtering a sheep.

The event on Thursday took place in Jerusalem’s Jewish quarter, with hundreds of people watching the ritual, which involved slaughtering the sheep on a public square, sprinkling its blood on a mock altar and then eating the cooked remains. Yehuda Glick, a Likud member of the Knesset and Temple Mount activist, was in attendance. Other features of the ceremony included the singing of psalms and the blowing of silver trumpets.

Tensions over the Temple Mount – the current site of the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque – have flared as some right-wing Jewish activists have sought to institute open Jewish prayer on the site, which would depart from the current status quo. Glick, who has been the victim of multiple assassination attempts, has figured at the center of the controversy.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO